Men's volleyball semifinals at Santiago 2023 Pan American Games promise thrilling battles
Men's volleyball has already defined its four semifinalists for the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games. Cuba and Colombia managed to advance to the next phase after defeating Puerto Rico and Chile, respectively, in the quarterfinals. They will face Argentina and Brazil and the semifinals are expected to be of high level and offer a spectacle worthy of a fantastic final. teleSUR
Transcript
00:00 And we go now to Chile, where the Pan American Games are underway, as we are joined by journalist
00:17 Eduardo Regonesi, who brings us the latest updates.
00:21 Hello, Eduardo.
00:22 What's new there in Santiago?
00:24 Hello, good morning.
00:25 It's a sunny and warm morning here today in Santiago, very different from yesterday's
00:33 cold November rain that we had that surprised most of the people here in Chile.
00:38 Very unusual to have rain in November here in Santiago, and also with very low temperatures.
00:43 But today, as we said, sunny day, the sun's coming out, and a lot of people are coming
00:47 into the National Stadium to witness another day of athletic action that's going to be
00:52 happening here in Santiago, especially behind me.
00:55 Right now we have the gymnastics trampoline discipline.
01:00 Early in the morning, around 10, it was the women's synchronized jumps that were happening.
01:05 Later on, it was the men's turn.
01:07 And later on this afternoon, around 4 or 5 this afternoon, we are going to have the individual
01:11 qualification rounds on the gymnastics trampoline.
01:15 There's a lot of sports, there's a lot of events that are finishing, that are wrapping
01:18 up here in these next three days that we have of sports action.
01:22 One of them is volleyball.
01:23 Yesterday we were at O'Higgins Park with all the action in volleyball in the final stages,
01:28 and we prepared the following story for you guys.
01:34 Intense Thursday morning at the main court at Parque O'Higgins, where thousands of fans
01:38 witnessed the quarterfinal match on the men's volleyball side between Chile and Colombia.
01:47 Less than 12 hours earlier, Chile was losing 3-0 against Argentina on group stage action,
01:54 qualifying Argentina to the semifinals and giving Chile few hours to rest before such
01:58 an important match.
02:00 It doesn't help, that's for sure, but it wouldn't be correct on our part to say that we lost
02:09 because of that.
02:11 It was because of other factors.
02:14 I'm speechless.
02:15 It is hard for me to complete a sentence.
02:18 It is hard.
02:20 Without excuses, Chile took the court, where Colombia was the better team from the start,
02:24 taking the first set 25-20 with a very good blocking game.
02:29 Even though young Chilean fans had their own analysis of the game.
02:33 Why do you think Colombia won?
02:36 Because we had bad returns.
02:38 Bad returns?
02:39 What about blocking?
02:42 Some went in and some went out.
02:45 The Chilean team improved on the second set, winning 25-21.
02:49 But today was Colombia's morning, with four of their key players having 10 or more successful
02:53 spikes.
02:58 Finally Colombia won in four sets, advancing to semifinals where they will face Argentina.
03:05 Later during the day, Cuba defeated Puerto Rico, 3 sets to 2, on a tight game.
03:10 It seemed like an easy win on the first two sets, but Puerto Rico came back and took the
03:13 game to a defining fifth set.
03:19 Now Cubans and Colombians will face Argentina and Brazil Friday afternoon, looking for a
03:24 spot on the men's volleyball final.
03:27 Volleyball in fact has become one of the fans' favorite competitions.
03:32 We hope that with this demonstration, especially in volleyball, bringing over 10,000 people
03:39 every day, hopefully that will show the importance of group sports.
03:47 And the crowd really came forward in support.
03:53 I think it is a very nice atmosphere, very well organized.
03:56 It's very nice to come with the family.
03:57 We have come to several events in the Pan American Games and everything works well.
04:01 We're very happy.
04:02 The semifinal begins Friday at 5.30 between Argentina and Cuba, while the final will take
04:07 place Saturday at 8pm.
04:10 For Deportes Tele Sur, Bastián Merino, and Eduardo Regonesi.
04:19 That was a great wrap, Eduardo, for yesterday's event.
04:22 So what else do we have?
04:23 What are we looking for today and this weekend?
04:26 Yes, there's a lot of other actions happening here today.
04:32 As we said, we are wrapping up the Pan American Games.
04:35 We still have three more days.
04:36 So let's do a quick update of what happened last night.
04:41 Yesterday night we had several actions, especially in athletics, where, good day for Venezuela,
04:48 we have Jocelyn Brea from Venezuela won the gold on the females 500m race.
04:54 Also in 200m, Marileidy Paulino from Republic of the Dominican Republic, Junis Leidy Garcia
05:00 from Cuba, and Ana Carolina from Brazil completed the podium.
05:05 On the men's side, Brazil, Dominican Republic, and signed Keats and Neves.
05:10 This small island, the smallest country in the American continent, small country in size
05:16 and in population.
05:18 They got their first medal, Nadale Buntin got the bronze medal for this very small Caribbean
05:23 island, so very big achievement for them.
05:27 In the 400m relay on the women's side, Cuba, Chile, and Dominican Republic got the podium,
05:33 while on the male side it was Brazil, Cuba, and Argentina.
05:36 This is the 400m hurdles race.
05:40 One of the first medals for Argentina, they're not having a very good tournament here in
05:44 Santiago, Chile.
05:45 Argentina got the bronze, as we said, on the hurdles, and very likely they're going to
05:49 obtain the gold medal in hockey.
05:51 That's their specialty.
05:52 They're the big favorites.
05:53 And yesterday, in fact, the Argentinean female hockey team defeated Canada 3-0 to make it
06:00 to the final.
06:01 Chile lost to the United States on the other semifinal.
06:06 It was a tight game, it's 1-1, but on shootout, United States took the game, so they're going
06:10 to be facing Argentina for the gold.
06:14 Also today, attention Mexico, attention Chile, we have the female football final at 8pm local
06:20 time.
06:21 And also later on tonight in athletics, we're going to have the final on the 1500m dash
06:26 on the women's side.
06:29 We're going to remain here, we're going to go back to the gymnastics so we can have all
06:33 the medals, all the updates for you guys on later edition.
06:39 Back to you in the studio from Santiago, Chile.
06:43 Thank you Eduardo, we'll be following closely to all the upcoming events.